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Source: Reuters -
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New Zealand's last surviving World War II coast watcher wants formal recognition for his comrades, who were beheaded in the South Pacific.
The US military is currently in Kiribati excavating for human remains from one of the war's bloodiest battles - but little is known of the New Zealanders who died there.
While the Americans have spent 60 years working to preserve the memory of the men who died for them in Kiribati, New Zealand has not recognised its own, despite them dying a brutal death.
Former coastwatcher John Jones, now 90, is the only surviving Kiwi coast watcher sent to Kiribati during the war, and for decades he has been trying to get recognition for his 17 friends who were caught and beheaded by the Japanese.
As mostly unarmed civilians, the coast watcher's job was to report any enemy movement along the Kiribati coast.
But Jones said the coast watchers were basically abandoned by the New Zealand government.
"The American government said we would go and rescue those other ones and bring them back, and the New Zealand government said 'no, they went up to do the job so let them stay and do it'," Jones said.
To add insult to injury the monuments to their memory leave a lot to be desired, with dirt and excrement covering the tributes.
Jones wants a memorial in New Zealand for his slain comrades and recognition - something that so far has been lacking.
Calls to clean up the monuments come in time for New Zealand's Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully to visit and lay a wreath.
McCully agreed something needs to be done about the state of the monuments.
"The time has come to make sure that there is probably a war memorial museum or something of that sort there," he said.
